Method and system for user based routing

ABSTRACT

A system and method for providing route information to a user, in which paths provided to the user are automatically selected based on personal information of the user, so that in following the provided paths, the user passes things in which the user may have particular interest.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/971,431, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR USERBASED ROUTING”, filed Aug. 20, 2013, which is hereby incorporated hereinby reference, in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the present invention relate to systems andmethods for providing directions to a consumer searching for a desiredproduct in a retail environment. More specifically, certain aspects ofthe present invention relate to systems and methods for providing routeinformation to a user, in which paths provided to the user aredetermined based on personal information of the user, so that infollowing the provided paths, the user passes particular things in whichthe user may have interest.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In order to provide information to aid consumers in locating aparticular product in a retail environment, a merchant may providesignage that displays a static list of products or product categoriesand their locations by floor and/or aisle, or a diagram showing thelocation of various departments in the store. Some merchants may provideprinted maps of the store layout at store entrances, or may provide alisting of the most frequently sought products or product categoriesalong with location information identifying the location on the mapwhere the product is available. Other merchants may provide anelectronic device on a shopping cart of the consumer, through which theconsumer may access the store location of desired products. Somemerchants may provide a loaner device, or may permit the consumer toinstall a merchant sponsored software application for use on their ownhandheld device such as a smart phone, media player, electronicorganizer, or handheld computer, to access directions to the productswithin retail locations of the merchant.

Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditionalapproaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, throughcomparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention asset forth in the remainder of the present application with reference tothe drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system and/or method for providing a route to a user traveling from afirst location to a second location according to personal information ofthe user, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection withat least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

These and other advantages, aspects and novel features of the presentinvention, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof, willbe more fully understood from the following description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of computer network, in which a representativeembodiment of the present invention may be practiced.

FIG. 2 shows an overhead view of the layout of an exemplary sales floorof a business, to which a representative embodiment of the presentinvention may be applied.

FIG. 3 illustrates an overhead view of the layout of an exemplary salesfloor of a business that may, for example, correspond to the sales floorof FIG. 2, showing multiple paths from a first customer location to afirst desired product location and multiple paths from a second customerlocation to a second desired product location, in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing routeinformation to a customer, in which two or more paths are automaticallyselected based on personal information of the customer, so that infollowing the provided paths, the customer passes particular things inwhich the customer may have interest, in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a personal electronic device thatmay correspond, for example, to electronic devices shown in FIG. 1, inaccordance with a representative embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Aspects of the present invention relate to systems and methods forproviding directions to a consumer searching for a desired product in aretail environment. More specifically, certain aspects of the presentinvention relate to systems and methods for providing route informationto a user, in which paths provided to the user are determined based onpersonal information of the user, so that in following the providedpaths, the user passes particular things in which the user may haveinterest.

The following description of example methods and apparatus is notintended to limit the scope of the description to the precise form orforms detailed herein. Instead the following description is intended tobe illustrative so that others may follow its teachings.

The present application makes reference to U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/494,758, entitled “Systems and Methods for High-PrecisionIn-Store Positioning, Navigation and Shopping Behavior Profiling,” filedJun. 12, 2012, the complete subject matter of which is herebyincorporated herein by reference, in its entirety.

In the following discussion, the terms “customer service agent” and“sales associate” may be used herein interchangeably to refer to anemployee or other individual who provides product and/or sales relatedassistance to customers of a business. The sales associate or customerservice agent may be, by way of example and not limitation, an expert,question and answer provider, merchandise associate, etc. The terms“customer,” “consumer,” and “user” may be used herein interchangeably torefer to a potential or existing purchaser of products and/or servicesof a business.

The term “social network” may be used herein to refer to a network offamily, friends, colleagues, and other personal contacts, or to anonline community of such individuals who use a website or othertechnologies to communicate with each other, share information,resources, etc.

As utilized herein, the terms “exemplary” or “example” means serving asa non-limiting example, instance, or illustration. As utilized herein,the term “e.g.” introduces a list of one or more non-limiting examples,instances, or illustrations.

The disclosed methods and systems may be part of an overall shoppingexperience system created to enhance the consumer shopping event. In oneexample, the disclosed system may be integrated with the customer'sreward system, the customer's social network (e.g., the customer canpost their shopping activity conducted through the system to theirsocial network), the customer's expert system, digital/mobileapplications, shopping history, wish list, location, merchandiseselections, or the like. However, the system disclosed may be fullyand/or partially integrated with any suitable shopping system asdesired, including those not mentioned and/or later designed.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of exemplary computer network in which arepresentative embodiment of the present invention may be practiced. Thefollowing discloses various example systems and methods for, by way ofexample and not limitation, producing and delivering directioninformation to customers via a computer network, to a handheld or mobiledevice such as those described above, and to devices such as kiosks andpublic terminals located both indoors and outdoors at business and otherlocations. Referring now to FIG. 1, a processing device 20″, illustratedin the exemplary form of a mobile communication device, a processingdevice 20′, illustrated in the exemplary form of a computer system, anda processing device 20 illustrated in schematic form, are shown. Each ofthese devices 20, 20′, 20″ are provided with executable instructions to,for example, provide a means for a customer, e.g., a user, a customer orconsumer, etc., or a sales associate, a customer service agent, and/orothers to access a host system 68 and, among other things, be connectedto a content management system, an electronic publication system, ahosted social networking site, a user profile, a store directory, and/ora sales associate. Generally, the computer executable instructionsreside in program modules which may include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks orimplement particular abstract data types. Accordingly, the processingdevices 20, 20′, 20″ illustrated in FIG. 1 may be embodied in any devicehaving the ability to execute instructions such as, by way of example, apersonal computer, mainframe computer, personal-digital assistant(“FDA”), cellular telephone, tablet, e-reader, smart phone, or the like.Furthermore, while described and illustrated in the context of a singleprocessing device 20, 20′, 20″, the various tasks described hereinaftermay be practiced in a distributed environment having multiple processingdevices linked via a local or wide-area network whereby the executableinstructions may be associated with and/or executed by one or more ofmultiple processing devices.

For performing the various tasks in accordance with the executableinstructions, the example processing device 20 includes a processingunit 22 and a system memory 24 which may be linked via a bus 26. Withoutlimitation, the bus 26 may be a memory bus, a peripheral bus, and/or alocal bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. As needed for anyparticular purpose, the system memory 24 may include read only memory(ROM) 28 and/or random access memory (RAM) 30. Additional memory devicesmay also be made accessible to the processing device 20 by means of, forexample, a hard disk drive interface 32, a magnetic disk drive interface34, and/or an optical disk drive interface 36. As will be understood,these devices, which would be linked to the system bus 26, respectivelyallow for reading from and writing to a hard disk 38, reading from orwriting to a removable magnetic disk 40, and for reading from or writingto a removable optical disk 42, such as a CD/DVD ROM or other opticalmedia. The drive interfaces and their associated computer-readable mediaallow for the nonvolatile storage of computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules and other data for the processingdevice 20. Other types of non-transitory computer-readable media thatcan store data and/or instructions may be used for this same purpose.Examples of such media devices include, but are not limited to, magneticcassettes, flash memory cards, digital videodisks, Bernoulli cartridges,random access memories, nano-drives, memory sticks, and other read/writeand/or read-only memories.

A number of program modules may be stored in one or more of thememory/media devices. For example, a basic input/output system (BIOS)44, containing the basic routines that help to transfer informationbetween elements within the processing device 20, such as duringstart-up, may be stored in ROM 28. Similarly, the RAM 30, hard drive 38,and/or peripheral memory devices may be used to store computerexecutable instructions comprising an operating system 46, one or moreapplications programs 48 (such as a Web browser), other program modules50, and/or program data 52. Still further, computer-executableinstructions may be downloaded to one or more of the computing devicesas needed, for example via a network connection.

To allow a user to enter commands and information into the processingdevice 20, input devices such as a keyboard 54 and/or a pointing device56 are provided. While not illustrated, other input devices may includea microphone, a joystick, a game pad, a scanner, a camera, touchpad,touch screen, etc. These and other input devices are typically connectedto the processing unit 22 by means of an interface 58 which, in turn, iscoupled to the bus 26. Input devices may be connected to the processor22 using interfaces such as, for example, a parallel port, game port,FireWire, or a universal serial bus (USB). To view information from theprocessing device 20, a monitor 60 or other type of display device mayalso be connected to the bus 26 via an interface, such as a videoadapter 62. In addition to the monitor 60, the processing device 20 mayalso include other peripheral output devices, not shown, such as, forexample, speakers, cameras, printers, or other suitable device.

As noted, the processing device 20 may also utilize logical connectionsto one or more remote processing devices, such as the host system 68having associated data repository 68A. In this regard, while the hostsystem 68 has been illustrated in the exemplary form of a computer, thehost system 68 may, like processing device 20, be any type of devicehaving processing capabilities. Again, the host system 68 need not beimplemented as a single device but may be implemented in a manner suchthat the tasks performed by the host system 68 are distributed amongst aplurality of processing devices/databases located at differentgeographical locations and linked through a communication network.Additionally, the host system 68 may have logical connections to otherthird party systems via a network 12, such as, for example, theInternet, LAN, MAN, WAN, cellular network, cloud network, enterprisenetwork, virtual private network, wired and/or wireless network, orother suitable network, and via such connections, will be associatedwith data repositories that are associated with such other third partysystems. Such third party systems may include, without limitation,systems of banking, credit, or other financial institutions, systems ofthird party providers of goods and/or services, systems ofshipping/delivery companies, media content providers, document storagesystems, etc.

For performing tasks as needed, the host system 68 may include many orall of the elements described above relative to the processing device20. In addition, the host system 68 would generally include executableinstructions for, among other things, coordinating storage and retrievalof documents, social network storage of a shopping list, receiving alocation of a customer via a mobile device, maintaining maps and layoutsof buildings and geographic areas, calculating directions or routeswithin buildings and geographic areas, receiving a request for a servicecall center connection from either a customer or a sales associate,routing the request via a distributed mobile video call center, andproviding a service call infrastructure for providing the requestor witha distributed customer service experience.

Communications between the processing device 20 and the host system 68may be exchanged via a further processing device, such as a networkrouter (not shown), that is responsible for network routing.Communications with the network router may be performed via a networkinterface component 73. Thus, within such a networked environment, e.g.,the Internet, World Wide Web, LAN, cloud, or other like type of wired orwireless network, program modules depicted relative to the processingdevice 20, or portions thereof, may be stored in the non-transitorycomputer-readable memory storage device(s) of the host system 68 andprocessing devices 20, 20′ and 20″.

A representative embodiment of the present invention may be seen in asystem or method for providing route information or paths of travel to auser, in which the paths provided to the user are automatically selectedbased on personal information of the user, so that in following theprovided paths, the user passes particular things in which the user mayhave particular interest, as further described below.

FIG. 2 shows an overhead view of the layout of an exemplary sales floor200 of a business, to which an embodiment of the present invention maybe applied. On the sales floor 200 of FIG. 2 are shown a number ofislands 202 shown as circles and rectangles representing various displayracks and shelving units that may be used to hold products for sale. Theshapes and number of the symbols used to represent such display racksand shelving units may be different from that shown in FIG. 2 withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Theislands 202 are separated by sufficient space to permit passage ofcustomers with or without shopping carts, strollers, etc. The salesfloor 200 may be divided into areas or portions (not shown) in whichproducts belonging to corresponding categories may be arranged. Certainareas of the sales floor may include stairways, escalators, and/orelevators (not shown) that may link the sales floor 200 with other salesfloors and/or other floors of the business, and may, along with otherbuilding structures (e.g., storage rooms, dressing rooms, bathrooms, andcheckout counters, not shown), act as obstacles to movement of customersand employees of the business about the sales floor 200. Theillustration of FIG. 2 also includes a location X 205 which mayrepresent, for example, the location of a customer entry/exit door ofthe business. In a representative embodiment of the present invention,the layout of each of the sales floors of the business, including thephysical locations and dimension of the various islands, storage rooms,dressing rooms, bathrooms, and checkout counters, and the presence andconnectivity of various sales floors via stairways, escalators, andelevators may be maintained by, for example, the host system 68 of thecomputer network 100 of FIG. 1, and may be used in calculating routeinformation for customers wishing to locate particular products andproduct categories on the sales floor(s), and by other systems of thebusiness. Such information may be referred to herein as map information.

It should be noted that the illustration of FIG. 2 is meant as anexample to aid understanding, and does not necessarily represent anyspecific limitations of the present invention, unless recited by theclaims. The operator of the business having sales floor 200 may maintainbusiness information identifying the physical locations of each of thedisplay racks and shelving units on each sales floor of the business, inassociation with information identifying the products that are displayedfor sale or order on each of shelves or portions of the display racksand shelving units. Such product identification information maycomprise, by way of example and not limitation, stock keeping units(SKUs), manufacturer and/or model identifiers, item identifiers,Universal Product Codes (UPCs), and/or any other suitable form ofproduct identification.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, systems withinthe business may determine the identity of a customer upon arrival atthe location X 205, and/or at other locations, at any time after arrivalat the business, or within a certain proximity of the business. Suchcustomer identification may be performed without customer involvementusing, for example, electronic devices and systems on or near the salesfloor 200. Such systems may receive wireless signals automaticallycommunicated by electronic devices carried by the customer, or mayreceive signals the transmission of which may be manually initiated bythe customer using software, logic, and/or circuitry of the electronicdevice of the customer. In some representative embodiments of thepresent invention, the customer may use a software application (i.e.,“app”) placed on the electronic device by the customer, a business, orother entity. One example of a location system may be found in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/364,441, entitled “METHODS AND SYSTEMSFOR PROVIDING LOCATION BASED ASSISTANCE VIA A MOBILE DEVICE,” filed onFeb. 2, 2012, the complete subject matter of which is herebyincorporated herein by reference, in its entirety. In variousrepresentative embodiments of the present invention, the operator of thebusiness of sales floor 200 may maintain or have access to informationthat associates customers of the business with characteristics of theelectronic devices of the customers, to enable the business operator torecognize the presence of and identify customers within a certainproximity of the business, in the manner described above. In addition,the operator of the business of sales floor may maintain personalinformation about customers of the business including, for example, ahistory of prior purchases by the customer.

Although some of the individuals visiting a business having products forsale may simply be “just looking,” in the majority of cases, a customerthat visits a business, such as a business having a sales floor like thesales floor 200 of FIG. 2, does so because they wish to locate aparticular product or product category. It is quite typical forbusinesses to provide static displays identifying the location ofvarious product categories or store departments to customers attemptingto locate a product. Some businesses provide electronic means ofdetermining the whereabouts of a product. A representative embodiment ofthe present invention permits the operator of a business to respond to acustomer's request for route information or directions to a product,product category, or department through various electronic devices,while customizing the path through the sale floor to the desired productaccording to personal information of the customer, but does notsignificantly modify the path length. In this way, a representativeembodiment of the present invention may find particular paths that guidethe customer to the desired product while increasing the likelihood ofadditional purchases of products of interest to the customer.

FIG. 3 illustrates an overhead view of the layout of an exemplary salesfloor 300 of a business that may, for example, correspond to the salesfloor 200 of FIG. 2, showing multiple paths 310, 312 from a firstcustomer location 305 to a first desired product location 315 andmultiple paths 350, 352 from a second customer location 345 to a seconddesired product location 395, in accordance with a representativeembodiment of the present invention.

In a first example, the illustration of FIG. 3 shows a starting locationX 305 of a customer at an entrance of the business sales floor 300. Atlocation X 305, the customer may access an electronic directory using akiosk, or using an electronic device of the user such as, by way ofexample and not limitation, a smart phone, a tablet computer, or a mediaplayer, which may correspond to one of the processing devices 20, 20′20″ of FIG. 1, for example. The identity of the customer may beautomatically determined by the systems in the business when thecustomer is within a certain proximity of the business, as describedabove, and the customer may be greeted via the processing device 20,20′, 20″ they are using. The customer may be at the business because oftheir interest in a particular product, and may identify the product ofinterest by providing information identifying the specific product, oridentify the product of interest by searching a product catalogmaintained by the systems of the business, using one of the processingdevice(s) 20, 20′, 20″.

Once the customer has identified the product to one of the processingdevices 20, 20′, 20″ of FIG. 1, the customer may request routeinformation to guide the customer to the location within the business atwhich the product may be found. In response to the request for help, arepresentative embodiment of the present invention may determine thephysical location of the customer, the physical location of the productof interest to the customer, and in addition, may access personalinformation about the customer from various sources, includinginformation maintained by or accessible to the business.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, such personalor customer-specific information may include, by way of example and notlimitation, historical information identifying products purchased by thecustomer, historical information about past search queries, andinformation identifying those products, brands, and categories that, forexample, the customer likes, wants (e.g., a “wish list”), has/owns, orwants to “follow” (i.e., keep abreast of). The customer may provide suchproduct preference or interest information by, as an example and notlimitation, selecting an icon or link on a product page, an email, or atext message, or via their response(s) to advertisements, polls, orother communication delivered to the customer via paper, electronic, orany other suitable means that permits the capture of customerresponses/reactions to questions.

The personal information for customers may also include demographicinformation such as, for example, the customer's birth date, gender,height, weight, clothing size(s), brand or designer preferences,information identifying the customer's email address(es) and the socialnetwork(s) to which they belong, and the identities and similar personalinformation for their friends, members of their family, and members oftheir social network(s). Some of the above-mentioned personalinformation may be gathered from the customer directly such as, forexample, when filling out a questionnaire, when applying for membershipin a loyalty program of the sponsor or operator, or a business partnerof the sponsor or operator of a system in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention. Personal informationfor customers, whether or not they are known to the business to be, forexample, account holders of credit cards of the business or members of aloyalty program, may be gathered through analysis of video imagescaptured by the systems of the business. This may be done, by way ofexample and not limitation, using image capture devices in productdisplays, indoor and outdoor kiosks, security cameras, and electronicdevices of the customer such as, for example, their personal smartphone, a tablet computer, or media player that is suitably equipped, forexample.

A representative embodiment of the present invention, having thephysical location of the product or product category of interest, thephysical location of the customer, and personal information of thecustomer, may calculate two or more routes from the customer location tothe location of the product or product category of interest, usinginformation about the locations of the various display shelves of thesales floor 300, and the personal information of the customer.

In a first example, a customer at location X 305 may identify a productor product category of interest, which may be located at island 315. Arepresentative embodiment of the present invention may calculate anumber of different routes or paths from the customer location X 305 tothe location of product of interest at island 315, using a knownalgorithm for calculating shortest paths between two points. From all ofthe paths that may be calculated between location X 305 to island 315,three such paths 310, 312, 314, are illustrated in FIG. 3, and thelengths of the three paths 310, 312, 314 from the location X 305 to theisland 315 displaying the product of interest may be calculated to bewithin a certain difference in length from one another or within acertain difference in length from the shortest path length.

A representative embodiment of the present invention may then usepersonal information of the customer such as, by way of example and notlimitation, any of the items of personal information described above, toassign to each of the paths 310, 312, 314 a score representative of, forexample, the relevance, interest, and/or likelihood of purchase ofproducts that are displayed within view of a customer traveling alongthe path. For example, a representative embodiment of the presentinvention may determine, using purchase history information of thecustomer, that the customer at location X 305 is a purchaser of shavingcream, that he/she normally purchases shaving cream every six weeks,that he/she last bought shaving cream five weeks ago and may needshaving cream, and that a display of shaving cream is located at island325. By comparing information identifying products located at physicallocations adjacent to, and presumably visible from, each of the paths310, 312, 314, a representative embodiment of the present invention maydetermine that shaving cream is likely to be seen by the customertraveling path 312, and may display to the customer in response to therequest for directions from location X 305 to location 315, the path 312that passes island 325 rather than the path 310, thereby increasing thelikelihood of an additional sale of shaving cream to the customer,thereby increasing the total revenue for the customer visit.

Some representative embodiments of the present invention may determinethat multiple paths to the item of customer interest pass additionalproducts of interest to the customer. For example, while path 310 ofFIG. 3 passes no additional products that are expected to be of interestto the customer, based upon an analysis of personal information for thecustomer, the two other paths 312, 314 of FIG. 3 pass respectiveproducts 325, 335 that are determined to be of potential interest to thecustomer. A representative embodiment of the present invention maynotify the customer of only the path having the most potential revenueor profit, or may notify the customer of both paths 325, 335 and theproducts that are passed while traveling those paths. While this exampleinvolves only three exemplary paths, this does not necessarily representa specific limitation of the present invention, as a greater number ofadditional products of interest to the customer, and of paths passing bysuch products, may be discovered and presented to the customer, based onthe analysis of the present invention.

It should be noted that although three paths 310, 312, 314 leading fromthe initial customer location X 305 and the product of interest 315 aredescribed in the above example, the starting location of the customerneed not be at the entrance of a business location (e.g., a salesfloor), and may not pass only a single additional product of potentialinterest to the customer. Instead, the customer may, using thetechnology of the systems of the business and an electronic device ofthe customer in accordance with the present invention, requestdirections/routing information to the location of any product at anylocation in the business from any location in the business. Further, thecalculations of a representative embodiment of the present invention mayfind any number of approximately equal length paths to a desiredproduct, and may find any number of additional products of potentialinterest to the customer along the calculated paths.

To illustrate, in a second example, FIG. 3 also shows two paths 350, 352between a customer location at an island 345 and the location at theisland 395 of a product that may be of specific interest to thecustomer. Along one of the paths 350, a representative embodiment of thepresent invention has found two islands 355, 365 that display productsof potential interest to the customer, while along the other of thepaths 352, the present invention has found two other islands 375, 385that display products of potential interest to the customer. In somerepresentative embodiments of the present invention, the customer may benotified (e.g., on a handheld electronic device) of the two possiblepaths 350, 352 to the location of the product of interest at island 395found by the present invention, and the location of islands 355, 365,375, 385 displaying additional products of potential interest to thecustomer that are along those two paths 350, 352. In otherrepresentative embodiments of the present invention, the customer may benotified of only the one path of the two paths 350, 352 that passes theislands displaying products of potential interest to the customer, thepurchase of which results in the greatest revenue and/or profit for thebusiness.

If the business has no personal information available for the customerrequesting the location of a product or product category, arepresentative embodiment of the present invention may select from thecalculated paths to the product of customer interest that path having anassigned score representing the highest likelihood of sale of productsrelated to or used in situations in which the product or productcategory of interest may be used. For example, the calculated pathsbetween the location of a customer and the location of a piece ofluggage of interest to the customer may be analyzed to determine whetherany calculated path passes an area of a sales floor in which itemsrelated to travel such as, by way of example and not limitation,travel-size toiletries, one quart clear storage bags, luggage tags,luggage straps, postage stamps, cameras, and batteries, are displayed.

It should be noted that the analysis of a representative embodiment ofthe present invention is not limited to selecting paths or notifying thecustomer based on additional products that may be of direct, immediate,or personal use by the customer. That is, as described above, thepersonal information of the customer may include historical informationidentifying products previously purchased by the customer, historicalinformation about past search queries, and information identifying thoseproducts, brands, and categories that, for example, the customer likes,wants, has/owns, or wants to “follow” (i.e., keep abreast of). It shouldbe noted that, in addition, the personal information of a customer mayinclude, by way of example and not limitation, demographic informationsuch as the customer's birth date, gender, height, weight, clothingsize(s), brand or designer preferences, information identifying thecustomer's email address(es) and the social network(s) to which theybelong. Such personal information may also include the identities of thefriends, family members, and members of their social network(s), andpersonal information like that for themselves, for each of thoseindividuals. Therefore, the calculation and selection of paths, and thenotification of the customer of additional products that may be ofinterest to the customer, may be based upon information about thefriends, family members, and members of the social network(s) of thecustomer. Such information may be gathered from the customer directly,or may be gathered from information posted or submitted by friends,family members, and the members of social network(s) of the customer,based on permissions given by the customer and/or their friends, familymembers, and members of their social network(s) to the systems of thebusiness.

In a further illustrative example, personal information for a customermay indicate that a particular individual is a friend, family member, ormember of a social network of the customer, and that the personalinformation of that particular individual indicates that the individualhas an upcoming birthday. A representative embodiment of the presentinvention may use personal information for that particular individual inthe selection of a path for, or presentation of a notification to, thecustomer. In this way, the customer may be routed on a path that passesitems of interest to the friends, the members of the family, andmember's of the social network(s) of the customer, or may be notified ofitems near the customer's present location in the business (e.g., asales floor such as that of FIG. 3), so that they may be made aware ofthe opportunity to purchase items as gifts for their friends, theirfamily members, and members of the social network(s) of the customer.

In addition, the movement of the customer across the sales floor 300 maybe tracked on an ongoing basis, and the personal information of thecustomer may be used to identify products in the vicinity of thecustomer that may be of interest to the customer. Messages or alerts onan electronic device such as, for example, a smart phone, a mediaplayer, a tablet computer, or any other suitable electronic devicecarried by the customer may be used to bring the identified products tothe attention of the customer, including products of particular value byway of discount or special features, which may be displayed for theproducts located near to the present location or path of the customer.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart 400 illustrating a method of providing directionsto a customer, in which two or more paths are automatically selectedbased on personal information of the customer, so that in following theprovided paths, the customer passes particular things in which thecustomer may have interest, in accordance with a representativeembodiment of the present invention. The following discussion of themethod of FIG. 4 may make reference to the elements of FIGS. 1-3.

The method of FIG. 4 begins at block 405, in which a system such as, forexample, the host system 68 of FIG. 1 may receive or collect personalinformation about a user such as a customer of a business. As describedabove, such personal information may be received or collected from theuser explicitly using, for example, questionnaires, polls, or othersuitable means, or may be received or collected from behavior of theuser such as historical information identifying purchases by the user,shopping behavior as may be indicated by time spent in particular areasof a business, demographics determined based upon information regardingtheir residence, and/or demographics based upon video images that may becaptured while in the business or from social networking websites. Itshould be noted that although the receiving or collection of personalinformation about the user is shown in FIG. 4 as a single step at thebeginning of the method (for reasons of simplicity), the gathering ofpersonal information of the user may be an ongoing process that beginswhen the system first becomes aware of the user, and may continue fromthat point on, until the operator of the system chooses to stopreceiving or collection of information on the user.

Next, at block 410, the system performing the method of FIG. 4 mayreceive a request from the user for route information or directions formoving from a current location to a second location. The first locationmay be the current location of the user, and the second location may bethe location within a business at which a product of interest to theuser is located. In some representative embodiments of the presentinvention, the first and second locations may be in an indoorenvironment such as, for example, a business establishment. The requestmay be received from the user, by way of example and not limitation, viaa kiosk, a personal computer, and/or a personal electronic device suchas a smart phone, a tablet computer, a media player, or any othersuitable device, illustrated in FIG. 1 as processing devices 20, 20′,20″ of a computer network such as the computer network 100 of FIG. 1.

The method of FIG. 4 may then, at block 415, calculate two or moreroutes from the current location of the user to the desired secondlocation, which in this example may be the location of a product ofinterest to the user. The calculation may employ information identifyingdetails and characteristics of the physical arrangement of things in thespace between the first and second locations, such as that describedabove with respect to FIG. 3 and the sales floor(s) and building of abusiness. Such information may be in the form of floor or buildinglayout or map information maintained by a system such as, for example,the host system 68 or any other suitable element(s) of the computernetwork 100 of FIG. 1 that may be operated by or for the business. Thecalculation of the routes between locations in the business may beperformed using any of a number of routing algorithms known in the art,using the floor layout or map information. A representative embodimentof the present invention may, by way of example and not limitation,employ hybrid collaborative filters using “partitioning around medoids”(PAM) clustering to rapidly score user preferences and route the useraccording to those preferences. Such a representative embodiment of thepresent invention may perform such combined scoring and routing in thetime normally expected by a user of a mapping device.

Next, at block 420, the method of FIG. 4 may cause the system to sortthe calculated routes in order of length. The sorting may be indescending or ascending order of length, and may be performed using anyof a number of known sorting algorithms. Following completion of thesorting at block 425, the system performing the method of FIG. 4 maythen select a number N of the shortest of the sorted routes.

Next, at block 430, the system performing the method of FIG. 4 mayassign a score to each of the selected shortest routes, according to thepersonal information of the user. The calculation of the score for eachof the selected shortest routes may determined using, for example, thepersonal information of the user and/or information about the product ofinterest to the user, and information identifying products or productcategories that would be passed by an individual traveling along each ofthe selected shortest routes, which may be of interest to the user andtherefore represent potential additional purchases by the user. Thecalculation of the score for each route may take into account, by way ofexample and not limitation, the prices, profit margins, likelihood ofpurchase based on the product of interest, and the popularity and/orsales rank of each product along the route, and the personal informationof the user.

For instance, by way of example and not limitation, a representativeembodiment of the present invention may use personal information about auser and/or information about the product of interest to the user, andmay generate a list identifying a certain number of products that wouldbe passed by the user while traveling along the selected shortest routeson their way to the location of the product of interest. Each product inthe generated list of products may then be assigned a rank based on thedegree of relevancy to, likelihood of user interest in, or othersuitable measure of match of the product from the list with the personalinformation of the user and/or the product of interest to the user. Eachof a certain number of the most highly ranked products, e.g., the topten products in order of their rank, may then be assigned a weight. Forexample, the highest ranked product may be assigned the highest weight,the next highest ranked product may be assigned the next highest weight,and so on to the lowest ranked product being assigned the lowest weight.In a representative embodiment of the present invention, the sum of theweights for the certain number of highest ranked products may, forexample, add up to a value of 1. The score for a particular one of theselected shortest routes may then be calculated as the sum of theweights assigned to the products that would be passed by a usertraveling along that particular one of the selected shortest routes. Insome representative embodiment of the present invention, the score of aroute or path may be non-linearly increased if two or more productswould be passed while traveling along that route.

Once scores have been assigned to each of the selected shortest routes,the method of FIG. 4 may then, at block 435, cause the system to sortthe scored shortest routes in order of their assigned scores. Thesorting of the scored shortest routes may be in ascending or descendingorder of assigned score using any of a number of known sortingalgorithms. Next, the method of FIG. 4 may, at block 440, direct thesystem to select, from the sorted scored shortest routes according tothe score assigned to each route, one or more of the scored shortestroutes having scores that represent the greatest likelihood of userpurchase of additional products. Finally, at block 445, the method ofFIG. 4 may cause the system to transmit the selected scored shortestroutes for display to the user.

It should be noted that the above example of the use of the exemplarymethod of FIG. 4 in an indoor environment does not necessarily representa specific limitation of the present invention, except as recited by theclaims, and that aspects of the present invention apply as well to therouting of travel while walking outdoors, riding in a motor vehicle, orother modes of transportation.

For example, a representative embodiment of the present invention may beused by one traveling in a motor vehicle, such as an operator of orpassenger in a car, where the traveler requests a route from a firstlocation to a particular second location of interest to the traveler. Arepresentative embodiment of the present invention may calculate anumber of routes between the first and second locations, may sort themby length, and may select a particular number of the shortest lengthroutes. Such an embodiment may then assign a score to each of theselected shortest routes according to personal information of thetraveler. For example, the score assigned to each route may be, by wayof example and not limitation, the number of business or recreationalopportunities (e.g., shops and stores, museums, fitness centers, bowlingalleys, restaurants, sports bars, etc.) that the personal information ofthe traveler indicates may be of interest to the traveler. Such arepresentative embodiment may then sort the scored routes, select fromthe sorted scored routes one or more routes having the greatest numberof businesses or recreational activities likely to be of interest to thetraveler, and transmit the one or more sorted scored routes to thetraveler for them to consider. In this manner, such a representativeembodiment of the present invention may allow an operator of a system asin the present invention to provide customized travel routing, notlimited to indoor situations, that maximizes the likelihood of thetraveler patronizing businesses and recreational activities in thegeographic area served by the system, through the use of personalinformation, or information about the destination of travel (i.e., thedesired second location).

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a personal electronic device 500that may correspond, for example, to electronic devices 20′, 20′, 20″shown in FIG. 1, in accordance with a representative embodiment of thepresent invention. The personal electronic device 500 may correspond toelectronic user devices such as, by way of example and not limitation, asmart phone, a tablet computer, a cellular phone, a media player, ahandheld personal computer, a laptop, a notebook computer, a netbookcomputer, a desktop computer, a television, or any other suitableelectronic device having the functionality discussed herein.

As shown in FIG. 5, the personal electronic device 500 includes aprocessor 510, an RF transceiver A 502, an RF transceiver B 703, a wiredinterface 504, a display device 520, a user input device 530, an audiointerface 540, and a memory 550. The processor 510 may be, for example,a suitable microprocessor or microcomputer having sufficient computingpower to control the personal electronic device 500, and is operablycoupled to the RF transceiver A 502, the RF transceiver B 503, and thewired interface 504. The RF transceiver A 502 and RF transceiver B 503may comprise any necessary circuitry, logic, and software/firmware forwireless communication over any of, for example, the cellular,Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (e.g., IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac), Zigbee, WiMAX, or anyother wireless network known now or in the future. The wired interface504 may comprise any necessary circuitry, logic, and software/firmwarefor wired communication over any of, for example, an Ethernet, UniversalSerial Bus, FireWire (IEEE 1394) or other wired networks known now or inthe future.

The processor 510 is also operably coupled to the memory 550, and may beused for non-transitory storage of executable program instructions,parameters, and data for any of the circuitry of the personal electronicdevice 500. The display device 520 is also operably coupled to theprocessor 510, and may comprise, for example, one or more LED, OLED,LCD, or other form of visual display capable of presenting text orgraphics, and may comprise any circuitry, logic, or software/firmware tosupport, for example, a graphical user interface (GUI). The user inputdevice 530 may comprise, for example, suitable switches, buttons, ortouch sensitive surfaces to enable user control and operation of thepersonal electronic device 500, and may comprise any necessarycircuitry, logic, and software/firmware to allow it to perform thosefunctions. In a representative embodiment of the present invention, theuser input device 530 may be a touch sensitive surface at the viewingside of the display device 520, enabling a user to use the touchsensitive surface of the display device to enter user inputs and respondto displayed information. The audio interface 540 comprises anynecessary circuitry, logic, and software to interface a microphone 505and a speaker 506 to the processor 510.

Aspects of the present invention may be seen in a method of operating asystem for providing routing information to a user moving between acurrent location and a second location identified by the user. Such amethod may comprise receiving personal information of the user,receiving a request from the user for directions for moving from thecurrent location to the second location, and calculating two or moreroutes from the current location to the second location. A method inaccordance with the present invention may also comprise assigning ascore to each of the calculated routes, according to the personalinformation, sorting the calculated routes in order of their assignedscores, selecting one or more routes from the sorted routes, andtransmitting the one or more routes for display to the consumer. In somerepresentative embodiments of the present invention, the routes may bein an indoor environment, and the personal information of the user maycomprise one or both of purchase history information and productpreference information. The personal information of the user maycomprise demographic information captured from a video image of theuser, and may comprise information about a member of a social network ofthe user.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, the scoreassigned to a particular route may be representative of a level ofinterest of the user in things along the particular route. Theparticular route may be a path through a store, the second location maybe a location of a product identified by the user, and the things may beproducts for purchase. In some representative embodiments of the presentinvention, selecting one or more routes may comprise choosing one ormore of the sorted routes having scores representative of a greatestlevel of interest to the user, and recording locations for display tothe user with the one or more routes, the locations being of particularinterest to the user according to the personal information of the user.

Additional aspects of the present invention may be found in a system forproviding routing information to a user moving between a currentlocation and a second location identified by the user. Such a system maycomprising at least one processor communicatively coupled to a displaydevice, and the at least one processor, during operation, may at leastperform the method described above.

Yet other aspects of the present invention may be observed in anon-transitory computer-readable medium having a plurality of codesections, where each code section comprises a plurality of instructionsexecutable by one or more processors to perform actions of the methoddescribed above.

Although devices, methods, and systems according to the presentinvention may have been described in connection with a preferredembodiment, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form setforth herein, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover suchalternative, modifications, and equivalents, as can be reasonablyincluded within the scope of the invention as defined by this disclosureand appended diagrams.

Accordingly, the present invention may be realized in hardware,software, or a combination of hardware and software. The presentinvention may be realized in a centralized fashion in at least onecomputer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elementsare spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind ofcomputer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methodsdescribed herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware andsoftware may be a general-purpose computer system with a computerprogram that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computersystem such that it carries out the methods described herein.

The present invention may also be embedded in a computer programproduct, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation ofthe methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer systemis able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the presentcontext means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of aset of instructions intended to cause a system having an informationprocessing capability to perform a particular function either directlyor after either or both of the following: a) conversion to anotherlanguage, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different materialform.

While the present invention has been described with reference to certainembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention. In addition, manymodifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material tothe teachings of the present invention without departing from its scope.Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited tothe particular embodiment disclosed, but that the present invention willinclude all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of operating a system for providingpersonalized routing information to an end user in search of a productor product category, the method comprising: in response to receiving arequest to provide directions from a current location of the end user toa location of the product or product category identified by the enduser, calculating two or more routes from the current location to thelocation of the product or product category; selecting, from the two ormore routes, a particular number of the shortest routes; assigning ascore to each of the selected routes, wherein assigning comprises:identifying a respective collection of products passed while travelingalong each particular route of the selected routes from the currentlocation to the location of the product or product category identifiedby the end user, and calculating the score for each particular route,wherein the score for each particular route is representative of one orboth of a likelihood of purchase by the end user of one or more of theproducts of the respective collection of products and a degree ofrelevancy of the one or more of the products to the product or productcategory identified by the end user; and transmitting two or more of theselected routes to a communication device of the end user, according tothe scores assigned to the selected routes.
 2. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the likelihood of purchase by the end user of one ormore of the products of the respective collection of products isdetermined using a collection of personal information of the end user.3. The method according to claim 2, wherein purchase history informationfrom the collection of personal information is used to determine thelikelihood of purchase by the end user of one or more of the products ofthe respective collection of products.
 4. The method according to claim2, wherein demographic information derived from a video image of the enduser is used to determine the likelihood of purchase by the end user ofone or more of the products of the respective collection of products. 5.The method according to claim 4, wherein the collection of personalinformation comprises the video image of the end user.
 6. The methodaccording to claim 2, wherein personal information of a second end useris used to determine the likelihood of purchase by the end user of oneor more of the products of the respective collection of products.
 7. Themethod according to claim 6, wherein the collection of personalinformation of the end user comprises the personal information of thesecond end user.
 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the scoreassigned to a particular route is representative of a level of interestof the end user in things along the particular route.
 9. The methodaccording to claim 8, wherein the particular route is a path through astore and the things are products for purchase.
 10. A system forproviding personalized routing information to an end user in search of aproduct or product category, the system comprising: at least oneprocessor communicatively coupled to a communication device of the enduser, the at least one processor, during operation, at least: inresponse to receiving a request to provide directions from a currentlocation of the end user to a location of the product or productcategory identified by the end user, calculating two or more routes fromthe current location to the location of the product or product category;selecting, from the two or more routes, a particular number of theshortest routes; assigning a score to each of the selected routes,wherein assigning comprises: identifying a respective collection ofproducts passed while traveling along each particular route of theselected routes from the current location to the location of the productor product category identified by the end user, and calculating thescore for each particular route, wherein the score for each particularroute is representative of one or both of a likelihood of purchase bythe end user of one or more of the products of the respective collectionof products and a degree of relevancy of the one or more of the productsto the product or product category identified by the end user; andtransmitting two or more of the selected routes to the communicationdevice of the end user, according to the scores assigned to the selectedroutes.
 11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the likelihood ofpurchase by the end user of one or more of the products of therespective collection of products is determined using a collection ofpersonal information of the end user.
 12. The system according to claim11, wherein purchase history information from the collection of personalinformation is used to determine the likelihood of purchase by the enduser of one or more of the products of the respective collection ofproducts.
 13. The system according to claim 11, wherein demographicinformation derived from a video image of the end user is used todetermine the likelihood of purchase by the end user of one or more ofthe products of the respective collection of products.
 14. The systemaccording to claim 13, wherein the collection of personal informationcomprises the video image of the end user.
 15. The system according toclaim 11, wherein personal information of a second end user is used todetermine the likelihood of purchase by the end user of one or more ofthe products of the respective collection of products.
 16. The systemaccording to claim 15, wherein the collection of personal information ofthe end user comprises the personal information of the second end user.17. The system according to claim 10, wherein the score assigned to aparticular route is representative of a level of interest of the enduser in things along the particular route.
 18. The system according toclaim 17, wherein the particular route is a path through a store and thethings are products for purchase.
 19. A non-transitory computer-readablemedium having a plurality of code sections, each code section comprisinga plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors toperform actions that provide routing information to an end user movingbetween a current location and a location of a product or productcategory identified by the end user, the actions of the processorcomprising: in response to receiving a request to provide directionsfrom a current location of the end user to the location of the productor product category identified by the end user, calculating two or moreroutes from the current location to the location of the product orproduct category; selecting, from the two or more routes, a particularnumber of the shortest routes; assigning a score to each of the selectedroutes, wherein assigning comprises: identifying a respective collectionof products passed while traveling along each particular route of theselected routes from the current location to the location of the productor product category identified by the end user, and calculating thescore for each particular route, wherein the score for each particularroute is representative of one or both of a likelihood of purchase bythe end user of one or more of the products of the respective collectionof products and a degree of relevancy of the one or more of the productsto the product or product category identified by the end user; andtransmitting two or more of the selected routes to the communicationdevice of the end user, according to the scores assigned to the selectedroutes.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according toclaim 19, wherein the likelihood of purchase by the end user of one ormore of the products of the respective collection of products isdetermined using a collection of personal information of the end user.21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 20,wherein purchase history information from the collection of personalinformation is used to determine the likelihood of purchase by the enduser of one or more of the products of the respective collection ofproducts.
 22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according toclaim 20, wherein demographic information derived from a video image ofthe end user is used to determine the likelihood of purchase by the enduser of one or more of the products of the respective collection ofproducts.
 23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according toclaim 22, wherein the collection of personal information comprises thevideo image of the end user.
 24. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium according to claim 20, wherein personal information of a secondend user is used to determine the likelihood of purchase by the end userof one or more of the products of the respective collection of products.25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 24,wherein the collection of personal information of the end user comprisesthe personal information of the second end user.
 26. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium according to claim 19, wherein the scoreassigned to a particular route is representative of a level of interestof the end user in things along the particular route.
 27. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 26, whereinthe particular route is a path through a store and the things areproducts for purchase.